Rockets rained down on southern Israel on Monday afternoon as the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Beersheba came under fire by terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
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One rocket hit a home in Ashdod, where eight people sustained minor shrapnel injuries. Magen David Adom emergency service said three people were lightly hurt by broken glass and five others suffered shock.
The rocket fire on southern Israel, which had been under sporadic fire for most of the morning of the eighth day of Operation Guardian of the Walls, surged shortly after the IDF said it had eliminated a Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in airstrikes that also destroyed underground terror tunnels used by Hamas.
The PIJ operative was later identified as Hussam Abu Harbeed, head of the terrorist group's northern Gaza division. The IDF said that he had orchestrated attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians for nearly 15 years.
Overnight Israeli airstrikes in the coastal enclave destroyed some 15 kilometers (9 miles) of Hamas tunnels and other underground infrastructure, the military said.
Gaza's mayor, Yahya Sarraj, told Al-Jazeera TV that the strikes had caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure. "If the aggression continues we expect conditions to become worse," he said.
Gaza terrorists fired some 60 rockets on Israel's south overnight – down from 120 and 200 the two previous nights, the IDF said.
Also on Monday, the IDF said it foiled an attempt by Hamas to launch an attack on Israel from the sea.
A military statement said that several Hamas operatives were spotted offshore in northern Gaza with "suspected naval diving weaponry," adding they were "apparently on their way to carry out a hostile sabotage operation in Israel's maritime sphere."
The cell was targeted by the Israeli Navy and a military aircraft and eliminated, the IDF said.
The fighting, which erupted on May 10, has so far left 12 Israelis – 11 civilians and one soldier – dead, and over 650 wounded. Gaza authorities said that 201 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes, including 58 children and 34 women.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is based in Qatar, said the group has been contacted by the US, Russia, Egypt, and Qatar as part of ceasefire efforts but "will not accept a solution that is not up to the sacrifices of the Palestinian people."
In an interview with the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, he blamed the war on Israel's actions in Jerusalem and boasted that the rockets were "paralyzing the usurping entity [Israel] by imposing a curfew on its citizens and closing its airports and ports."
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said his government is working to "urgently" end the violence, in his first comments since the war broke out.
Egypt, which borders Gaza and Israel, has played a central role in the cease-fires brokered after previous rounds of fighting.
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